playing it cool. both candidates downplay expectations ahead of the first presidential debate of the 2012 election. to the rescue. tense moments as an 84-year-old woman's car plunges into a maine harbor. and flipping out. a powerful typhoon wreaks havoc on southern japan. good morning to you. i'm veronica de la cruz. those stories and much more straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc.

we begin this morning with debate prep. president obama and his republican rival mitt romney are both getting ready for their first face to face presidential debate in denver wednesday night. romney is holding a rally in the mile-high city today, while the president gears up in nevada. nbc's tracie potts joins us from washington with the latest. >> reporter: good morning, everyone. we get an interesting perspective on this from john mccain, he's debated both the president and mitt romney. he says we will see two very strong well-prepared debaters and he predicts few surprises. the president's behind closed doors in nevada for the next two days preparing to face mitt romney in denver wednesday. >> he's a good debater. i'm just okay. but what i'm most concerned about is having a serious discussion about what we need to do to keep the country growing.

>> reporter: both sides are downplaying expectations. a senior aide to the president says romney will be prepared, disciplined and aggressive. romney's debate partner calls the president a tough debater. >> barack obama is going to be formidable, and i think it will be a good debate, but i certainly would not underestimate what barack obama brings to it. >> reporter: john kerry's playing romney with the president. in a weekend memo, republicans urged kerry to press the president on libya and syria. romney calls obama's foreign policy dangerous. romney's debate plan, clearly and concisely explain how he can fix the economy. >> i expect to be able to describe that in a way people will understand, and if they do, i get elected. >> reporter: his running mate, paul ryan, is already preparing for his own debate a week away. >> i really believe in the policies that we're providing, we're pursuing. and at the end of the day, i'm

just going to go in there and be me. >> reporter: and if you can't control what actually happens in the debate, you certainly control what happens afterwards. the spin already in the planning. ryan's going to be with romney in virginia. the president is staying in colorado for a rally there. veronica? >> tracie, we appreciate it. thank you. nato forces in afghanistan say three international service members and their translator were killed in a suicide bombing in the eastern part of the country this morning. this as the war in afghanistan reached a grim milestone sunday with a death of the 2,000th u.s. service member. nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel has the details. >> reporter: there has been another insider attack, the so-called green on blue attack, when afghan troops attack and kill their american partners. so far, this year, these kind of attacks have led to at least 20% of american combat deaths in afghanistan. a group of american soldiers were manning a checkpoint, a vehicle control point, when they were approached by two afghan troops.

the afghan soldiers walked up to the americans, they exchanged a few words with them. it's not exactly sure what was said between the american soldiers and the afghan soldiers. but then one of the afghan soldiers pulled out a weapon, opened fire, killed an american soldier, killed an american contractor, and then other american soldiers in that area responded, killing at least three afghan soldiers. richard engel, nbc news, kabul, afghanistan. on this first monday in october, the u.s. supreme court begins its new term today. thtejusttieses. >> reporter: the justices are expected to consider a lot of things. >> reporter: the nine justices begin a new term on monday. one case the court will hear involves the practice of considering race for college admissions. abigail fisher sued after she was rejected by the university

of texas, austin. >> there were people in my class with lower grades who weren't in the activities that were 5:pept were accepted to u.t. and the only difference was the color of our skin. the defense of marriage act signed by president clinton is also facing numerous challengeses. the law states the federal government will only recognize traditional marriages, meaning no federal benefits even where same-sex marriage is legal. >> same-sex couples are denied hundreds of different rights and benefits that are provided to married different sex couples under federal law. >> reporter: on the docket as well, whether to curtail parts of the historic voting rights act of 1965. it mandates federal oversight for states with a history of voting discrimination, when

changing any rules for elections. challengers say the law is outdated and unnecessary. a big lineup of cases that could change the landscape of civil rights in america. fr frances coe, nbc news. and now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. in maine, a group of strangers spring into action when an elderly woman drove her car into the portland harbor. the band of good samaritans pulled the 84-year-old out of her car moments before it sank. the woman is in stable condition. some of the rescuers had to be treated for hypothermia. carmageddon 2 has come to an end just in time for this morning's rush hour in california. the demolition job that shut down a portion of l.a.'s 405 freeway hit a snag when a column collapsed. work crews completed a major component of the four-year expansion project. in kentucky, a test of strength was on display.

34 teams of 20 people battled to see who could pull a 757 cargo plane 12 feet in the fastest time. the competitors showed the money as well as some muscle. all of the teams raised money for the special olympics. finally, hawaiians continued their love affair with spasm hundreds gathered to build the world's largest mosubi. the 628-pound hawaiian snack was made with loads of rice, loads of seaweed and all of that spam. the event also featured a contest where the winner downed seven of them in three minutes. time for a look at the national weather. we turn to nbc meteorologist, bill karins. spam. it's like 5:00 in the morning. >> with some wasabi sauce. the tongue twister of the

morning. >> that's your favorite, isn't it? >> yeah, right. happy october 1st. >> i want august back. >> i just started stressing about thanksgiving dinner plans. we have rain to deal with as we go throughout this wake-up period this monday morning. we had a washout of a weekend in many areas of the deep south. texas on saturday. as we went through saturday afternoon, all day sunday, the storm hit mississippi. all of this green on the map is areas of rain. a lot of it out of alabama, heading for northern georgia. tennessee is drenched all through the state. the other thing we have to deal with, we had isolated severe weather over the weekend. a few weaker tornadoes, numerous areas with flooding. once again today, the possibility of severe storms in this region. we could also see heavy rainfall, too. areas from memphis to nashville

will have the highest totals. about two inches of rain. about an inch across alabama and areas of georgia. as far as the severe weather goes, if we get isolated tornadoes, most likely they would be coming through the panhandle of florida and through central alabama. we'll watch that closely this morning. some of those storms could be heading for atlanta today. if you're flying today through the atlanta airport, your best chance of significant delays. as far as the other areas of concern, big storm in southern portions of quebequebec. a lot of cold rain, and i'm sure a lot of those leaves are coming down. forecast today, fine in the northern plains, fine in texas. it's the mid-atlantic all the way down to the southeast that are dealing with the problems. just kind of an ugly monday morning in the south. >> big umbrella day. thanks. bill. a new quarter begins. pump prices fall and bonnie and clyde's guns go for anything but a steal.

your "first look" at your business headlines is straight ahead. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. i'm bara ck o bama and i approve i'm bara this message. ck o romney: "it's time to stand up to the cheaters" vo: tough on china? not mitt romney. when a flood of chinese tires threatened a thousand american jobs... it was president obama who stood up to china and protected american workers. mitt romney attacked obama's decision... said standing up to china was "bad for the nation and our workers."

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welcome back to "first look." i'm veronica de la cruz. here are some of the top stories making news this morning. at least 26 people were killed in coordinated bombings across iraq yesterday. that brought the iraqi death toll in the month of september to nearly 200. iran's official news agency was taken in by the satire of the onion and ran their phony news story as if it were a real news item. the agency apologized for mistakenly running the satirical article that claimed that a gallup poll found that whites in rural america prefer iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad to president obama.

and an iranian cameraman who went to the united nations in new york with president ahmadinejad has defected. he is seeking asylum in the united states. japan was hit by a typhoon, which was strong enough to overturn vehicles on the island of okinawa. more than 140 people were injured and tens of thousands lost electrical power. and a painting by renoir worth up to $100,000 was bought at a flea market for 7 bucks. an auction of the painting was stopped on saturday. a woman from virginia bought the landscape on the banks of the seine mostly for the frame. the painting was stolen from a museum in baltimore in 1951. it was worth $100,000. and now here's your "first look" at this morning's dish of scrambled politics. mitt romney has an op-ed in the "wall street journal" on foreign policy. mr. romney says allowing iran to build a nuclear weapon is unacceptable. president obama also says the

u.s. goal is preventing iran from having an atomic bomb. paul ryan told fox news he and mitt romney want a 20% cut in all income tax rates but ryan failed to provide details. the associated press says if the election were held today, mitt romney would win 23 states, president obama would win the rest capturing 271 electoral votes. hugo chavez, the president of venezuela is facing re-election with voting to be held next sunday, october 7th. chavez told an interviewer that if he were an american, he would vote for president obama over mitt romney. music magazine has ranked the ten best presidents since 1900. franklin d. roosevelt, president during the depression and world war ii was ranked number one.

number ten was barack obama. and as the supreme court starts its fall term, justice ruth bader ginsbebegin ginsburg oldest on the supreme court. you probably did not know gin gingsburg and scalia spend every new years with reach over's family welcoming in the new year. and now here's a look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow closed at 13,437. the s&p lost six. the nasdaq was down 20. taking a look at overseas trading, in tokyo, the nikkei dropped 73 points, while in hong kong, the hang seng was closed for a holiday. as a new quarter begins and presidential candidates prepare to square off, economic data will be of particular interest to wall street and main street

this week. the labor department's september employment report comes out friday, but will be high on investors' agenda all week. fed chair ben bernanke's latest take on the economy will also get a lot of attention when minutes from the federal reserve's latest policy meeting are released. september auto sales are also on tap. some experts predict sales are up nearly 11% over last year. meanwhile, according to aaa, the price of regular gas is down about five cents in the past week to an average $3.81 a gallon. overseas this morning, uncertainty about spain's bailout weighed down asian stocks. thousands filled spain's capital this weekend to protest sweeping budget cuts and austerity measures included in a 2013 draft budget. elsewhere, on the heels of apple's flawed debut of its new mapping app, nokia and oracle customers will have access to

nokia's data and location services. >> hewlett-packard is set to roll out a new tablet device today that will work with microsoft's new windows 8 operating system. the elite pad 900 comes at a time when, according to new research, half of all adult americans now own either a tablet computer or a smart phone. and finally, who says that crime doesn't pay? two guns that belonged to famed partners in crime bonnie and clyde sold to an anonymous buyer for just over half a million dollars at an auction over the weekend. a quarterback makes history, and nfl teams break out a bag of tricks. plus, a colossal collapse at golf's ryder cup championship. your "first look" at sports is straight ahead. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. does your phone give you all day battery life ?

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that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and it's also why, with our partner in brazil, shell is producing ethanol - a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane. >>a minute, mom! let's broaden the world's energy mix. let's go. look." i'm veronica de la cruz. in sports, the europeans played their hards out yesterday at medina to match the greatest comeback in ryder cup history. the europeans started off fast and head the u.s. to 3 1/2 points all day. squared with sergio garcia, jim furyk misses a putt and garcia wins one up, marking a point at which europe came all the way back to take a 13-12 lead. 18th hole, martin kaymer wins the putt to give europe the point they needed to win the ryder cup.

the packers leading by seven. drew brees strikes to colston, tying the nfl's all-time mark set by the great johnny unitas. behind in the fourth, the saints had a shot to take the lead, but missed a 48-yard field goal with two and a half minutes to play. green bay won it 28-27. new orleans is 0-4. some trickery in the nfl yesterday. a fake field goal turned into a two-yard touchdown pass to danny amendola, putting the rams ahead of the seahawks late in the first quarter. they would go on to win 19-13. in cincinnati, trailing 7-3 on fourth down, the bengals used a direct snap to running back cedric peerman on a fake punt for a 48-yard gain. they would score on a one-yard pass a few plays later. and the bengals beat the jaguars 27-10. all right.

now for another look at the weather, here is nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather forecast. you know i never do sports, so -- was it okay? >> it was fine. the giants lost to the eagles last night on nbc. >> i got the play by play. >> you got the play by play? >> yeah, coming up next. >> i think everyone at nbc sports is safe, but you never know. good morning. everyone. worse drive this morning is from tennessee into kentucky this is where a shield of rain is heading northwards. rainy around burlington, vermont, new hampshire and upstate new york. dry from boston to philadelphia. the rain in d.c., if you will get it, it will be late today. mostly for the evening drive onwards. it should be light, too. a ton of rain down to the southeast. even atlanta could deal with severe thunderstorms later today. >> all right. too bad. don't like the rain. dracula scares up big bucks at the box office. plus baby, baby, baby, no. an unbelievable incident at the

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welcome back to "first look." it is time for some entertainment news. halloween came early as monsters ruled the box office. the animated comedy "hotel transylvania" took in $43 million, the highest september opening weekend of all time. and the sci-fi thriller "looper" snagged the number two spot with 22 million. in other news, arnold schwarzenegger tells "60 minutes" he cheated on wife maria shriver multiple times, including an affair with actress

brigitte nielsen while he and shriver were dating. anything to say about this one? >> uh, gross. >> he and shriver divorced last year. bill, i know you love lohan news. lindsay lohan is claiming a 25-year-old man who she reportedly met at a nightclub grabbed her in her new york hotel room -- >> i would have protected her. >> really? any way, this guy grabbed her in her new york hotel room in an argument over cell phone photos her took of her. police arrested the man on assault charges but later voided the arrest when they couldn't be substantiated. >> if you know there are pictures, you know tmz will get them soon and we'll see them. justin bieber had a concert foul in arizona this weekend when he bent over mid song and barfed.

he later tweeted milk was a bad choice, lol. really? >> no comment? >> some people having their broke fast this morning are wishing we didn't go through that story. >> i'm veronica de la cruz m is f, stay tuned for willie geist. a suicide bomber in afghanistan kills 14 people, will this be the new normal for the next two years of american engagement in a country where we have been now for 11 years? two days away from the first presidential debate with new questions about the obama administration's handling of the attack on the u.s. consulate in libya. the question is what would a big night look like exactly? and a tight game in ph